float 1 of 2

1
as in to hover
to rest or move along the surface of a liquid or in the air a canoe floating down the river particles of dust floating in the air

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2

float

2 of 2

noun

as in dock
a structure used by boats and ships for taking on or landing cargo and passengers the crew put the cargo on the float before heading back down the river

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of float
Verb
Parker has always seemed to amiably float along in his retro-futurist space cloud. Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025 By way of comparison, the 82-year-old country singer Lee Greenwood, whom Speaker Johnson floated as a viable replacement candidate for the Super Bowl headliner gig, has racked up 96 million streams on the service. Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 17 Oct. 2025
Noun
There will be floats and marching bands, equestrians and community groups. Heather McRea, Oc Register, 29 Sep. 2025 But their teams won those starts and wound up on parade floats, and that’s what matters most in the end. Jayson Stark, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for float
Recent Examples of Synonyms for float
Verb
  • Weekly jobless claims remain volatile, hovering around 217,000 as of mid-October, while consumer confidence has stagnated at historically low levels.
    Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
  • Just smear fake blood on your face, get gussied up in your finest wedding attire, and make sure to pose throughout the night, your lips hovering just inches away from each other, but never quite touching.
    James Factora, Them., 17 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Under Dino Toppmoller, Uzun has evolved from Mario Gotze’s understudy last season into a roaming second striker within a direct, vertical system.
    Sukhman Singh, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Accompanied by a nonchalant guitar performance, dancer and choreographer Dong Jilan, donning a brown velvet dress and having the same long, wavy hair as Sanmao, woke up from a miniature dune and roamed around the set in a highly spiritual and ceremonial fashion.
    Denni Hu, Footwear News, 17 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Rich in seafood and history, Rockport was once a vibrant hub for the export of timber and granite, and a dock was built in 1743 to make shipments easier.
    Megan Margulies, Travel + Leisure, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Suarez also has sought to prevent people from living on sailboats, including by calling for the removal of a dock that boaters utilized to access food and water on land.
    Aaron Leibowitz, Miami Herald, 14 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Balloons in red and white dotted the sky, as the yachts with flags in the same colors sailed by.
    Mayu Saini, Footwear News, 17 Oct. 2025
  • The article reported that last year, CNS , a Type 052C destroyer, sailed in an area of the ocean it had not previously operated in after completing intensive combat readiness training in the South Pacific and was preparing to return to its home port in China.
    Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • From wandering rare palm forests to navigating ancient waterways and spotting hundreds of migrating bird species, outdoor enthusiasts have much to explore.
    Gabi De la Rosa, Southern Living, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Sometimes, it was described as fantastical, depicting unrealistic and strange juxtapositions, as though the black people in his paintings had wandered into a genre or set of conditions totally discordant with what the viewer considered their actual reality.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • In the 2007-08 fiscal year, the port authority increased fees for five major services, including tugboats, water supply, wharf rent, container storage and container loading and unloading.
    Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 15 Oct. 2025
  • One day in April, Noone and I rode a ferry from downtown Sydney to Manly, where Young met us on the wharf.
    Eren Orbey, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Guests can also swim, fish, and bike in specific areas within the park.
    Jennifer Prince, Southern Living, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Don't swim against the current.
    NC Weather Bot, Charlotte Observer, 11 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • While drifting lower from late September record highs, the stock was still up nearly 35% year to date — outperforming the S & P 500′s 13% advance.
    Zev Fima, CNBC, 14 Oct. 2025
  • According to a preliminary investigation, a passenger vehicle was traveling northbound in the third lane when, for an unknown reason, the driver drifted across the lanes.
    Caroline Neal, Louisville Courier Journal, 14 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Float.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/float. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.

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